


Discovery: Daft Punk Origins

by sinlet



Category: Daft Punk
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-06
Updated: 2012-05-06
Packaged: 2017-11-04 23:00:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/399148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinlet/pseuds/sinlet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two newly built robots experience life and strive to become human.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

\+ **Life** +

He saw the light of day at an unknown place in an unknown period of time. But that was unimportant to him at that time. What mattered was what he saw and how he perceived it.

As he began to open his eyes, the first and only thing he saw was white brightness. Light?

 

The next thing he saw-felt-heard - he wasn’t sure yet - was a voice. “Welcome to this world.” It was deep and rich with a hint of darkness and it spoke in a language that he understood.

“Look at me.” It demanded gently.

His vision became clearer as his eyes adjusted to his surroundings.

He was lying on some kind of operation table and a tall man was sitting on a chair next to him.

The first thing heconsciously perceivedwas the face of his creator. His vision focused on the face before him, it was a bit sunken and old, but in a graceful way. The man’s hair was grey, no, it was silver.

“I’m Dr. Madaraki and you are Thomas. How are you?”

 

There was no pain. No discomfort. Everything seemed fine.

Except that he had no eyes. Instead, optical receptors transferred the information straight into his brain. Technically this wasn’t a real brain either, but the doctor liked to call it like that. Brain was the compendious term for all the processes than were running in his system.

The doctor kept explaining to him what he was, a robot.

A robot with a design similar to a human, similar but different. Instead of a face, he was wearing a silver helmet with a visor and a small mouth that looked like a coin slot. Instead of skin there was a black tightly woven synthetic fabric.

The tall man asked his newest creation to follow him and guided him the through the facility as he kept explaining.

All the time the robot just followed and listened intently, enamoured by all the fantastic input. Taking in every tiny bit of information. The Doctor kept talking and talking for hours, there was so much to explain, so much to learn.

Most important was that he was created to be human. But what does being human mean?

However, all details how he was built were left out. But back thenm, he wasn’t able to ask, he was too busying being fascinated to be alive.

Their conversation, or rather the doctor’s monologue, was interrupted by a soft purr.

Thomas involuntarily flinched, but soon learnt that a cat was nothing to be afraid of.

After their first session he was sent back to sleep. Technically, he could not sleep, but he had to be connected to a power unit to recharge. During that time his system was set to standby. It really appeared as if he was sleeping. The doctor even prepared a bed for him next to the power unit.

 

 

\+ **Sound** +

The first thing Thomas consciously learned was how to produce and how to perceive sound properly. Or in laymen’s terms how to hear and to speak.

How he sounded, how the doctor sounded and what kind of sounds objects make when you interact with them. The sounds of the cat were most wondrous to him because it made such a sweet noises for seemingly no reason.

The doctor kept giving him tasks and he executed them.

Thomas mastered the ability to understand and to produce language very fast. It was the same with trivial things such as movement, it all came naturally to him. Dr. Madaraki was very happy about that and kept praising him.

However, no matter how happy the doctor was with him, he almost never seemed to smile, as if there was an aura of melancholy surrounding him.

What language was the doctor speaking? What language was he speaking? It never occurred to him to ask, he just understood it. 

 

\+ **Touch** +

This was an interesting experience. It took the silver robot a quite some time to determine all the different textures and properties that came with them. Sometimes the way to a conclusion came with a few broken or damaged things, but the doctor never seemed to mind.

His favorite thing to touch was the cat’s fur, it felt so pleasant and the cat enjoyed being petted by him. During this time, for Thomas the primary indicator that sometimes was alive was body warmth. It almost made him sad to know that his body had no natural warmth.

Thomas now also began to explore things on his own without being told. The doctor told him that it was ‘a huge step’. Thomas just crooked his head and a question mark appeared on his visor, he didn’t understand what was so special about him just doing things that naturally came to him.

His creator responded with a friendly laugh and said more to himself than to the robot “It’s time.”

 

\+ **Friendship** +

Some time later, the silver robot was called into the sternmost place of the lab. A small room with a table in the middle and all kind of machines and electronic parts scattered among the place. This was the room were the doctor always went when he wanted to be alone. The robot was never forbid to go there, but he learnt to sense when his constructor needed some space.

As Thomas entered the room, he immediately recognized it, that was the room where he was born, no, where he was created.

It didn’t bother him that he technically was a construct, but using the term ‘created’ or ‘built’ instead of ‘born’ was odd to him. In all the books he read and movies he watched, none of these robotic terms was used. There were only humans and ‘human words’.

But what was that lying on the table… another robot? A companion for him. The wish or even the thought of having another person around never occurred to him. However, it seemed to be a part of the doctor’s plan all along.

His golden counterpart looked slightly different from him, he was smaller and his helmet was mostly made of a black material, framed by a golden border on the sides and the back. All of his ports were open and cables were attached to them, somehow that image frightened Thomas a little. To him, it had the character of an autopsy. 

While the doctor removed most cables, he explained that all of Thomas knowledge was already transferred into the other robot, minus the data that affected the personality. The transfer was possible since they were running on same system.

As he was finished with the way too scientific explanation, the doctor entered a few lines of code into the console next to him and the body on the table began to twitch.

Thomas watched with fascination as the golden robot came to life.

Slowly and clumsily, the golden robot lifted himself from the table into a sitting position. His movement was still a little jagged, but none of his admirers seemed to care.

Their maker smiled warmly as his newest creation looked into his eyes for the first time.

“Welcome to this world, Guy-Manuel.”

Guy-Manuel’s head slowly turned to Thomas and then back again, a question mark appeared on his visor.

The silver robot responded in an equal manner with a “Welcome <3” and hugged the other gently.

From then one they did everything together.

While Thomas was cheerful and open, the smaller robot was rather timid and quiet. He often needed encouragement from his silver counterpart, but after a while he also began to act on his own.

Dr. Madaraki adored how gentle and loving Thomas was with the new robot.

Years passed as they began to discover more and more of the world. Especially what it meant to be human. The doctor exposed them on all kind of materials, books, movies, games, etc. and made them experience different life situation like cooking or tending to the plants in the other part of the lab.

Together, their learning progress went a lot faster. They exceeded the doctor’s expectations by far.

 

\+ **Connection** +

For robots, there are various possibilities to transfer data between each other and other objects.

There were small ports hidden beneath the black synthetic fabric that covered their hardware. In order to expose ports, one has to sweep two fingers over the receptor.

Three different kinds of these inlets exist, each one with different security levels measured through different access permissions. The purpose behind this was to prevent damage through such things as overloading or hacking.

The fist kind of port with the highest security level was located at the wrists.

The second kind lied slightly beneath the area where the belly button should be. Their complementary parts, that shared the second grade of security level with them, were located at the small of the back.

The last set of ports with allowed most permissions were located at the nape of the neck. And above the ports, hidden under the helmet, were the cables to connect with other objects. However, they only offered a one way data transfer.

From those areas all kind of data was transferred straight to the central processor where it is analysed.

 

Their cables fit into most of the machines in the lab, even the toaster, and allowed the robots to control them.

Connecting with each other via those ports allowed them to share their experiences 1:1 and it also felt slightly pleasant. However, they were only allowed to use their wrist ports and only under strict supervision.

This greatly limited their possibilities, but this restriction apparently made the process a lot safer. Nothing really bad happened though, they managed to fry some machines, but once they got used the media’s limits everything was fine.

However, the doctor was always worried that something could happen to them, so he kept being strict.

Thomas often tried to talk the smaller robot into exploring the connection on their own, but Guy-Manuel always refused. He was either too shy or too scared, Thomas couldn’t tell.

During the years, they managed to perfect the way of transferring data between each other and they mastered the precise control all machines. When one made progress, he could easily share the data with the other without accidently overriding something important or causing damaged in another way.

 

\+ **Connection v2.0** +

One day, as Thomas was sitting on his bed trying to solve a rubik’s cube, Guy-Manuel approached him with an odd request.

“I want to try something.” The smaller robot reached behind the other’s head, gently freed one of the cables and held it between two fingers in front of him.

Thomas was surprised, Guy-Manuel has always been very reluctant about connecting and now he suddenly sounded so eager. He was very curious himself and trusted his abilities, so there was no reason to decline the request.

So he offered his hand in response, but the other shook his head.

“No, not there. Here.” With that, he leant forward and brushed his hand over the receptors, so the ports on his neck were exposed.

“But these are…” Thomas was surprised, he certainly didn’t expect that.

“I know… “, the smaller robot sat down next to his friend and rested his head on his shoulder.

“But what if…”

“What’s the worst that could happen? Technically, the only things you can do are taking control over by body and go through my data.”

“Are you sure you want this?”

“Yes… I really like connecting with you, you know, it feels good.”

At first, Thomas hesitated. He had always asked for this, but now that the moment came, he was also a little afraid. But curiosity won over fear and doubt.

With shaking hands, he took the cable from the other’s hand and inserted it in one of his counterpart’s neck ports.

At first there was nothing.

“Uh… are we doing this right, I mean, are we supp- ooohhh.”

As Thomas started to send data there was pure bliss and Guy-Manuel’s vision turned white, he was close to overload.

His body almost fell backwards on the sheets, but he managed to catch himself on his forearms.

“Guy, are you okay!? Did I hurt you!?” The taller robot immediately stopped streaming and reached for the cable to end the connection.

As the golden robot came to his senses and shakily grabbed his partner’s hand before he could pull the cable out.

“Wait! I’m fine… it felt strangely good. A lot better than the wrist connection. It was just too much at once.”

“R-Really?”

“Yes, please continue. But try to be, uh, ‘more gentle’?”

“Maybe send less data?”

“Uh, yes.”

“Okay, lay down to, uh, relax or something.”

Guy-Manuel chuckled, this only works for humans, he thought, but he still complied and pulled Thomas down with him.

“Well, if you want it that way” he breached sweetly, as if he smiled. Of course, he couldn’t, but the different pitch in his voice, told Thomas that it meant ‘smile’.

And with that he started streaming data again, slower and less than before.

“J-just like that, yes.” The golden robot’s hand grabbed the other’s upper arm firmly, as he reached for his cable “Let me, hah, do the same to you, ah!”

Guy-Manuel took his cable and plugged it into one of Thomas’ ports at the back of his helmet. Then he slowly and carefully started to send data which made the other feel the same kind of pleasure.

“Ah! This is good.”

Suddenly the desire to explore each other’s bodies with their hands awoke. On its journey along Guy-Manuel’s back, Thomas’ hand found the ports on the lower back exposed and he experimentally inserted finger into one of the ports.

Thomas! N-not there…” the other moaned.

“Why not? Hah, We already broke one rule, hah, I’m pretty sure nothing worse can happen.” Thomas breathed.

“Aaaahhh!”

Guy-Manuel was too aroused to reply with anything coherent. Instead he reached between them to do the same to one of Thomas’ ports at his loins.

“Nnggghh, Guy, I had no idea…”

During the haze of pleasure, they both increased the rate of data sent between them, bringing them closer to a possible shut down through overheating. But the technical side effects were not important as they were craving for more pleasure.

“H-how, do we uhm…”

“’finish’this?”

“Yesss…ah!”

“What if we, hah, rebuild the connection, so we both can feel what the other feels? It could double the pleasure.” Thomas suggested as he squeeze his lovers buttocks and inserted another finger into another port below the first.”

“Nnnngh, that could be interesting.”

“Are you ready?” instead of waiting for an answer, he just reestablished the connection with a few alternations.

“Yesss- AAhhhh.”

“Oh god, Guy, I can’t ho-“

After a few seconds the pleasure became unbearable. Their vision was distorted with colored lines and then everything turned black as their circuits overloaded and they shut down simultaneously.

It was Guy-Manuel who came back to his senses first “Thomas, are you alright?”

No answer.

The golden robot began to worry “…T-Thomas?”

Then the other awoke and pulled his counterpart into a hug. Their helmets lightly bumped together. The closest thing to a kiss they could manage.

Of course, the doctor wasn’t stupid. He always watched over his precious creations, so all rooms were being monitored.

His head rested on his hands as he was leaning forward to get a better look on the incident displayed on the small computer screen [FOR SCIENCE!].

He had to grin to himself because he knew this would happen eventually. Curiosity was in their nature. Their human nature.

It was the first time they disobeyed him. He was surprised that it took them years, but was also sure this wouldn’t be the last time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas and Guy-Manuel’s lives change drastically as unforeseen things happen to them and their loved ones.

\+ **Limitations of Progress** +

Several years have passed and the robots still eagerly continued to learn more and more. It felt as if they were absorbing the whole knowledge of humanity. The most complex scientific paradigms unfolded as easily for them as the most trivial knowledge about everyday occurrences.

The process of knowledge acquisition only went so smooth because their data storage capacity was apparently unlimited. Besides that, they perfected the ability to share information via data transfer, which only increased the speed of the process.

But they were still not sure if they were human. So they kept asking the doctor almost as if they were little children, “Are we human yet?”

With kind eyes and an equally kind smile, he always gave his ‘children’ the same answer, “This is a question you can only answer by yourselves.”

In fact, it was the most unsatisfying answer to that question. The state of uncertainty felt worse than a simple ‘no’. After the conversation the robots almost always felt a bit rejected. Everything they have achieved so far was in the end a result of the doctor, who was always guiding them. Why won’t he guide them now when they needed him most?

This short conversation would always result in the same outcome. The duo would be more puzzled about their current state than before. A question mark would appear on their visors to further emphasize their confusion. Guy-Manuel would crook is head a little, while Thomas would just keep staring the doctor right in the eye, as if he was demanding more. But both he and the doctor knew, there was nothing ‘more’ to say.

They knew of that endless loop very well, yet they still kept asking. Their strong aspiration to become human made them ask the question again and again over all those years. After all, there was a tiny spark of hope, that maybe one day the doctor would say ‘yes’.

 

\+ **Tragedy** +

The silver robot made his way to the doctor’s office with the golden robot closely following him. Somehow it seemed that Thomas was always leading the duo, but not without considering Guy-Manuel’s opinion. So in the end, it was not always clear which idea belonged to which individual.

The doctor sat at his desk, his back facing his visitors, his head rested on his hand.

The duo immediately realized that something was wrong, usually they were greeted by him with a gentle gesture and his sad eyes would always brighten a little. This time, the doctor didn’t even move.

“…doctor?”

No answer.

Guy-Manuel was the first who slowly approached their maker from behind until he was able to see his face.

Then he flinched, Thomas was immediately right beside him and instinctively settled his hand on the golden robot’s arm. Both had never seen the doctor like this.

“Doctor, what’s wrong?” It was Thomas, who found his voice first.

Their ‘father’ was crying silently. It took him a few seconds to gather himself, so he could face his robots.

Both of them stood absolutely still, focused on the man before them. They didn’t dare to move or to say something. Have they done something wrong?

The doctor’s fingers were trembling a little he as pointed at the cat basket at the other side of the room.

“He is dead.” He said with a husky voice.

The robots had no idea how to react. They understood the concept of death but it being in such a situation was beyond their understanding. They reluctantly approached the cat in its deathbed. It looked as if it was sleeping, but it was not moving. Usually, the fur of an animal is always in motion and always made it look alive. The stony look of the fur and the lack of warmth that normally emitted from his body astonished them.

“He probably died in his sleep… I hope he had a nice dream”, Guy-Manuel whispered.

“…yes”, the doctor replied after a few seconds of silence.

Even though they never experienced such a situation, they tried to do what seemed right – some might say natural - for them. Each robot took a place at the doctor’s side and they settled one hand on each of the doctor’s shoulders. They stood there like this for some moments until the doctor silently placed his hands on theirs.

 

\+ **Maelfunction** +

Some time had passed since the cat’s death and its burial. Slowly the daily routine took place again. However, the death of his beloved pet left another hole in the heart of the doctor, from which he never seemed to fully recover.

His ‘children’ wanted nothing more than to make him happy again. Little did they know about the extent of vortex of melancholy that ruled the doctor’s heart and slowly consumed him until there was nothing left to mend.

\---

One day, the silver robot heard his partner screaming his name in panic. As he turned around to see what was wrong, Guy-Manuel was already there and flung himself into his arms. Carefully, he put his arms around the smaller robot, who was shivering and clutching on his shoulders.

But this didn’t seem to calm him down. It almost sounded as if Guy-Manuel was sobbing, yearning for comfort – if he was human, tears would run down his cheeks. Incoherent sentences and unintelligible words spluttered from his voice box as his panic reached its peak. Then he somehow managed to become a bit less vague.

“I… It’s there… I can… now- just as if- I…“

Thomas only had little success trying to calm down his partner. With terribly trembling hands, the golden robot reached behind his head to retrieve the cable and presented it to Thomas.

“Please… y-you need to see f-for… .“, he stuttered and fell silent again.

Was it a virus? Was Guy-Manuel broken? This has never happened before and it sounded like something serious. Whatever it was, Thomas knew he was the only one who could save him and he had to act quickly.

Without fear, Thomas took the cable from his partner’s shaking hands and inserted it into the port on the back of his head. Whatever he has discovered or what went into him, the silver robot needed to see it too in order to help him.

Now that they were linked together, Thomas experienced the same as Guy-Manuel. He quickly discovered that from a technical perspective there was nothing wrong with him.

The agitated behavior was not triggered by his hardware. Instead, it was the result maelstrom of emotions that surged through Guy-Manuel and that slowly began making his way through Thomas’ circuits.

It was Guy-Manuel who felt the first emotion and his first reaction was to share it with his counterpart. The taller robot’s grip around his partner tightened, as he was being lead through different emotions. The different kinds of love; for the doctor, for the cat and for him. The sadness of the event in the past, but also the happiness they shared together and everything else.

It was then when they realized, they were always feel, to experience emotion. They might have always been human, the emotions have always been there. It was just the window of opportunity that had just opened for them in this very second and the intensity of the emotions that made them realize.

And together they cried with no tears, feelings of joy and sadness mingled with each other. It just felt beautiful.

Hand in hand, they went to the doctor and told him what happened. They told him, he was right, only they could discover the answer as they fell into his arms and thanked him again and again.

The doctor was happy and one of his rare smiles grazed his lips as he was holding his creation in his arms.

It was the happiest day in his life, he said, next to the day there were born of course and then he laughed and cried at the same time.

They laughed with him, without recognizing the hint of the deep abyss of emotions and events that had happened before they were ‘born’.

But the doctor didn’t mind, he didn’t want them to know. The only thing he wanted right now, was to enjoy this moment of endless happiness together with them.

 

 

\+ **Connection v3.0** +

Soon, their life was cheerful again. The only difference was that they now actually realized that they felt cheerful. It wasn’t long before the robots started to wonder what their next great task would be.

\---

When Thomas visited Guy-Manuel’s room one day, he found his counterpart sitting on the floor staring almost mesmerized at one of the electrical outlets.

“Guy? What are you doing?” Slight amusement could be heard in his voice.

Without taking his eyes off of his object of fascination, Guy-Manuel greeted his counterpart, lost in thoughts.

“Have you ever wondered, what would happen if we establish a connection with it?”

The silver robot knelt down next to him and joined him at his activity.

“No. But I bet you did?” He chuckled.

“Well, all the other machines like it”, he snickered.

“How can you even tell what they like? Did you invite them for tea and biscuits and then you had a nice conversation about certain preferences?” Thomas laughed, but then his tone became more serious again, “Besides, what makes you think it’s good for us, too?”

“No, silly. Even you should know that they prefer coffee and cake over tea and biscuits. And besides”, he imitated his counterpart, “it’s just a hunch.” With that Guy-Manuel ran his fingers over the smooth plastic cover of the outlet and turned his face towards Thomas.

“I guess, I will just have to try.”

Thomas settled himself on the ground to watch intently as the golden robot inserted his cable into one of the metal holes.

When all ports opened, Guy-Manuel slowly sunk on the floor and laid there motionless on his back.

Thomas could tell there was no serious damage because the other’s body didn’t show any sign of overload or something similar, so he just smartly noted “See, I told you this wasn’t good for us.”

Then he noticed that the body in front of him began to twitch.

“Wrong, this is good, nngghhh…” By now the golden robot was writhing on the floor in pleasure.

“T-That was unexpected.” Thomas observed the scene in front of him half in disbelieve and half in arousal.

 

“What are you waiting for, ah, come and join me.” Guy-Manuel demandingly pulled the taller robot on top of him and almost immediately inserted a digit into one of the ports on his partner’s back.

“Ah!” Thomas cried out in surprise, “This really feels good, doesn’t it?”

“Yesss… hurry.”

The silver robot wasted no time and inserted his cable into the other hole of the outlet. The pleasure that came over him was intense. So intense that it made his vision gone white for a second.

“Oh- Oh god, aaahh.”

“See? I told you.”

As he regained more control over himself again, Thomas’ fingers began to explore Guy-Manuel’s ports which only made the other moan for more.

“This will, hah, certainly lead to a crash.”

“I don’t care, nnghh, do it, I’m so close, please…” Thomas took another one of Guy-Manuel’s cables and inserted it on a port of the back of his head. Both almost simultaneously send the data thread “I love you” to each other before all kind of communication else was lost entirely to the bliss.

As soon as the connection was established, the pleasure doubled to a level none of them could take. They held each other close as they approached the shutdown together.

 

 

\+ **The Beginning of the End** +

As the small family was walking through one of the greenhouses of the huge facility, the doctor suddenly collapsed. Before his body could hit the floor, Thomas caught him. Guy-Manuel offered his assistance in helping him up, but both robots noticed quickly that he didn’t just slip. He was unconscious.

So they brought him to his bed to let him rest. It was then when the robots realized how old and fragile he really was. And they began to worry.

They felt so helpless, more helpless than ever before because they didn’t know what to do, how to fix this. All those years they learnt how to repair each other, but they had no idea how to ‘repair’ a human body.

So they waited and waited. The doctor was still breathing, but his chest rose and fell weakly. The colour gradually faded from his face until it looked almost grayish.

All they could do was sitting by his side and holding his hand. A seemingly endless silent vigil.

Suddenly, their creator’s eyes fluttered open and a bit of colour came back to his face.

“What happened?”

His robots began to explain the situation and his only reply was “…I see. I’m sorry I made you worry so much. Now go and rest.”

They reluctantly followed his request and just as they reached the door, they heard his voice again, “Wait, my children. ” So Thomas and Guy-Manuel turned and listened intently to what their creator had to say.

“Listen to me now and listen carefully. My time might soon come. Before that, I want you to know that I love you with all my heart. I taught you everything I know and a lot more, now it’s your turn to advance on your own.”

And then he smiled. “Don’t look at me like that. The reaper doesn’t have to take me now or tomorrow. But he will visit me soon. I just want you to be prepared. Now get some rest.”

That night, none of them could find any rest. The two robots cuddled together as close as they could in fear and uncertainty.

\---

In a matter of three days, the doctor’s condition increased significantly. But as they came to wake him in the morning of the fourth day, he was dead. They screamed his name, they tried to shake him, but to no avail.

To their surprise, they felt nothing. Nothing at all. All they could do was to stare at him and wonder what to do next and if their emotions had died with him.

Then it came, the tremendous grief overtook them. They didn’t know what came about them and they cried helplessly all night.

Later they buried him and properly mourned him, but nothing helped.

 

\+ **Everything and Nothing** +

Both of them knew they couldn’t stay here. Every tiny little bit here reminded them of the deceased doctor and the cat. Every day they stayed, made them so sad that it threatened to cause irreparable damage to their souls and circuits.

So they packed a few practical things and went on a journey to discover the rest of the world. To find another place to live. To find what they were looking for.

They prepared long and thoroughly for this. Since they required neither food or water and they were also able to run by solar energy, there was nothing that spoke against this. However, there was one thing they worried them most; Could other humans accept what they were? From all they have learnt, humans usually react hostile towards robots, aliens and the like.

Those thoughts stimulated another thought process; They were more than robots, but still less than humans. What were they?

Despite the doubts, they started their journey.

Years passed and the robots were still wandering through the world, taking in all information they could. But they discovered nothing. There were no humans, not even animals. There was only nothingness. Were there even other humans? The doctor never mentioned and it never occurred to them to ask.

It was then, when they secretly wished they could die too. No one would tell the other, but instinctively they knew they felt the same.

Still, the words of their creator and their striving to find what they were looking for, encouraged them to keep walking.


End file.
